The Most Positive, Inexpensive Direct Mail Ever

This weekend as I wandered around the Chicago edition of the Renegade Craft Fair I saw a lot of really creative products and designs from a diverse collection of artists and merchants.

But it was the Chicago Reader’s booth that captured my imagination with a simple, low-cost promotion any host could easily steal.

Instead of giving away bumper stickers or key chains they had postcards with a simple message on the front: “You are _______________.”

On the back, where the message goes, the cards read, “A random uplifting message for you, written in Chicago at the Renegade Craft Fair.”

For a small donation you could put your address on the back of a postcard and leave it there so another random fair-goer could complete the message on the front. You also got to finish the message on the front of someone else’s pre-addressed card making you both creator and recipient of a random, uplifting message.

Thanks to me someone in South Bend, Indiana should soon receive a postcard that says they are, “Awesome with a capital A,” and I’ll soon see what message someone wrote on the card addressed to me.

It’s a great “Pay it Forward” type of promotion and the costs attached are nominal. Postcards are cheap to print and postage is only .30 (probably less in bulk). If you don’t have the budget find a sponsor. It’s not a big investment.

There is one thing I would do differently than the Reader; put a logo on the front of the card.

That way when they get put up on bulletin boards and refrigerators all across the market people will remember who facilitated their random, uplifting message.